Sparassis crispa have been conveniently used in French cuisine because of their excellent texture, their brilliant white color and in particular their unique form resembling Brassica oleracea. Sparassis crispa is generally referred to in Japanese as "Hanabiratake" and is also occasionally called "Hanabira-maitake" because it grows well on the larch tree.
Very little natural Sparassis crispa is harvested and the growth rate thereof is terribly slow. It has therefore been understood in the art that the artificial/industrial cultivation of Sparassis crispa is not easy. The present inventor had repeatedly tried to cultivate Sparassis crispa by inoculating their strain (seed strain) into a culture medium consisting of larch-tree sawdust as the main ingredient along with the various nutrition, but four (4) months were usually necessary to grow the mature Sparassis crispa having the ideal form like Brassica oleracea. Using known culture media, the present inventor could not realize artificial/industrial cultivation of Sparassis crispa.
On the other hand, with respect to the larch tree, there is a huge amount of useless chips produced by thinning young larch trees. Forests of larch trees are widely distributed in many mountainous regions in Japan, and large amounts of larch-tree chips are usually produced through thinning of the larch tree forest to maintain the proper growth thereof. There is currently no use for such chips other than as a pine stake.
Unfortunately, the disadvantages realized in the conventional cultivation of Sparassis crispa have not been solved yet, and therefore there exists a need in the art for method(s) and means for shortening the cultivation period of Sparassis crispa.